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The official forums for The Secret World have a new post from Funcom answer some of the questions asked by the community over the course of time. Ten questions in all were answered, but closer scrutiny reveals that some of them for repetitive in nature, so it’s really only 8 questions or so answered.

Here is a quick summary of what I thought were the most interesting sections. There is other information detaling how awesome the story is etc., but that is marketing lingo than anything else. You are really interested in the buttel points below:

There may be mounts.

Every in-game NPC is fully voice-acted.

There will be in-game social events, but the exact nature is not confirmed yet.

There will be arenas for PvP action. This information is brand new, and was revealed through these questions.

You can create at least one character per account. You may be able to create more. Once you are part of a society, even thinking of joining another is treason. Your choice is for life.

It’s still an informative read, so head on over to the forums for the thread, or just read the whole post copy-pasted below!

Q1: Will TSW provide an abundance of Social Events (like current ARGs but in game) and social locations to party/etc? (FaithLove)

Our hubs are social arenas where players can engage in non-combat activities. As for what, exactly, those ‘non-combat activities’ will be, we haven’t revealed yet, but we want to create a world that isn’t just about serving your secret society or slaying demons. We want to give players tools to do more than that, and we’ll probably talk more about this soon.

Q2: Will there be ‘mounts’, like horses, bikes, cars or dinosaurs? (Lorr)

We haven’t made any announcements yet – although dinosaur mounts would clearly be awesome. Anything is possible.

Q3: Can you make a Templar and Dragon and Illuminati character? (Shoval)

Your character can only belong to a single secret society – and switching societies isn’t possible. Whether you can create a new character in a different secret society on the same account or server is something we haven’t communicated yet.

Q4: Will it really be impossible to switch secret societies? (Annihilator27)

As above, your choice of secret society is for life. To even think of joining the enemy is treason.

Q5: When you make a game that’s very lore and story driven, it can be easy to fall into a linear structure, because you really want to be sure that the player knows the full story. How do you find a balance between telling a main story and at the same time, giving players the freedom to explore?(Kasama)

Players can jump in and out of the main storyline as they please. They don’t have to follow it. Exploration is both encouraged and, sometimes, required, since you may not yet be ready – or powerful enough – to continue on your journey. To uncover the entire story, every little piece of it, you really do have to explore the world and discover its secrets – that’s a key element to the game, and something we’ve created mechanics to support. In The Secret World, story IS gameplay.

Q6: In one of the first interviews, you mentioned that TSW would have extensive voice-overs, with at that time over 100 voice-actors. How is this coming along? Will the game have full voice-overs, or only the “main” quest lines like in Age of Conan?(Ardanwen)

All non-player characters will have full voice-overs, for all missions – not just the main story mission.

Q7: How will the character creator be like?(AlexanderFG)

It will be fun and flexible! I can’t really say more than that. Character creation is obviously very important, and we’ve tied some cool story elements to the process, making it part of your journey into the secret world.

Q8: Is there going to be any “battlegrounds” or arenas for PvP or is it all going to be open world?(Scooch)

We haven’t really talked about this yet, but what the hell: there will be arenas for PvP matches – in addition to the ongoing society battle for world domination.

Q9: The Secret World exists so far from the mundane world… how elaborate/visual will the magic in game be? How varied?(Azaris)

The Secret World isn’t very far from our everyday world at all; we just tend to look the other way. It’s the world down that dark alley, beyond the tall fence, through the door of the rundown house on the edge of town. It’s the world that we glimpse when we take a shortcut home one night and see shadows lurking off the beaten path.

It’s the world we see in the corner of our eye but are afraid to acknowledge because it would make us question everything we hold to be true. It’s the world behind the curtains, where puppet-masters pull strings, making governments, religions and corporations dance to their tunes. It’s our world, without the coat of white paint, and it’s right here, right now, if you only knew how to look.

There’s going to be tons of variety in terms of what kind of magic players can learn and how they can use it – both in terms of visuals and gameplay – and that also goes for the magic weapons players get to wield. But it’s still magic of our world, not a world of elves and dwarves and dragons (well, um, sort of), and it’ll feel as such.

There’s voodoo, illusionism, demonology – magics that belong in the darkest corners of Earth, not in some high fantasy world.

Q10: Would you say TSW is more of a story-driven MMO or an action-based MMO?(Ironfeet)

I’d say it’s a heavily story-driven MMORPG with tons of cool action! Obviously, the setting and the story are incredibly important to us. We’re putting a lot of work and attention into the universe, into the characters and the voice-overs and the lore, into all those game mechanics that are geared towards immersing the player in the storyline, making them feel part of something grand and ancient and secret, part of these age-old conspiracies and powerful secret societies. But you also spend a lot of your time fighting creatures of darkness – that’s what the story is about. It’s about the rising tide of evil, about these normal, average people being granted incredible powers, and about how they use those powers to battle darkness – in service of their cabals.